Pineapple grenades

Factual Questions
1

Why do pineapple grenades look all pineappley? AFAIK, frag grenades nowadays don’t necessarily look like that (at least if Rainbow Six has any credibility.)

Is it for a good grip, so when you do an overhand toss it doesn’t accidentaly slip out of your hand and land behind you?

2

The idea of a grenade is, besides the concussion from the explosion, to send shrapnel flying around. The pineapple shape creates pre-defined lines of fracture to facilitate the creation of the proper size shrapnel. Too large and you don’t get good “coverage”. Too small and they don’t do enough damage. If only as much thought went into consumer products.

“non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem”

3

the bumps and valleys probably were used for grippiness and the fact that the valleys were thin spots in the casting (kinda like perforated paper) and were the spots where the cast iron would separate and fly away at high speeds toward anything in the way. The new frag grenades have a wound wire inner layer with a sheetmetal outer layer. (I think the wire is perforated or made thinner at points.)

4

I found this on a web page from FAS (a good source for information the military is reluctant to publish).

“The body of the M-67 hand grenade is a 2.5-inch diameter steel sphere designed to burst into numerous fragments when detonated. It produces casualties within an effective range of 49.5 yards (15 meters) by the high velocity projection of fragments. The grenade body contains 6.5 ounces of high explosive. Each grenade is fitted with a fuse that activates the explosive charge.”

I might also mention that the casing (of any explosive device) is designed to contain the explosion for a short time so that the chemical reaction can proceed farther and release more energy when it finally does give way. It’s the difference between lighting a firecracker and burning a pile of gunpowder.

“non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem”

5

And to add one more thing. Those types of gernades are meant to explode in the air (prefrebly over people). They are NOT meant to hit the ground then explode like they are usually portrayed.

Formerly known as Nec3f on the AOL SDMB

6

“Is it for a good grip, so when you do an overhand toss it doesn’t accidentaly slip out of your hand and land behind you?”
—Alphagene

Anyone out there who was aboard the USS Ogden, off the coast of Vietnam, 1965-1966 might remember this incident.
The marines would throw grenades over the side at random intervals to discourage swimmers. A navy officer managed to talk a marine into letting him toss one, and of course he let it go on the back stroke. Luckily, the marine (while laughing himself silly) had the presence of mind to kick it overboard, and it went off about ten feet below the deck. The officer just stood there, trying to figure a way to order everyone present to forget what thet’de just seen.
That still ranks as one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.
Does that answer your question, Alphagene? :slight_smile:
BTW; It was smooth.
Peace,
mangeorge

Work like you don’t need the money…
Love like you’ve never been hurt…
Dance like nobody’s watching! …(Paraphrased)

7

The scoring on the shell of the old pineapple grenades was an attempt to improve the fragmentation properties of the grenade. I’ve read that since then it was discovered that better results are obtained if the grooves are on the inside of the shell.

8

Used by militant, insurgant Hawaiians?
Aloha DOES mean ‘hello’ & ‘goodbye’ at the same time!!!